Misty Refuge
by Shinokaze
Summary: All of Ranma's fiances teamed up for one last ditch effort for Ranma to choose, but like any other plan that involved Ranma.  The plan backfired...
1. Prologue

Misty Refuge

Prologue: Through the Mist.

A light drizzling rain misted down from a seemingly open night sky. The clouds were not thick, so traces of the full moon and some of the stars permeated through the almost translucent clouds. The air was thick like trying to breathe through wool, stifling almost all sounds except for the soft pitter patter of raindrops hitting the soft wood ceiling of the Tendo Dojo.

A dark silhouette was seen through an open crack of the dojo door, jumping, leaping, gracefully. Punching, kicking, and rolling to recover from an imaginary blow from an opponent, stopping now and then as if trying to recall something in his mind.

He was a young man in his late teens, dressed in a red silk shirt, the iridescent moonlight reflecting off of his shirt, flashing occasional blotches of red onto the floor and the dojo walls, and a pair of black pants, making his legs almost completely invisible like his upper half was floating in midair, the only proof is the rush of air from the high speed of his movement causing whishes and cracks in the empty dojo. His hands can be seen to be calloused, when he struck with an open palm strike, in all the places that marked him as a fighter. His hair was tied back in a pigtail, and the occasional glimpses of his face as he weaved through darkness and light shown twin tear tracks on his boyish face, both dried and wet now completely indistinguishable which is which.

Another lone figure stood at an entrance of a door looking toward the young man in the dojo, her frame was not big, but delicate. The long somewhat baggy dress hid her figure quite well. She hid her face, unknowingly in the shadow, slowly she took a step forward to get a better look at the figure dancing gracefully in the dojo with a deadly art. The soft moonlight illuminated her skin, making her face practically glow. Her long flowing ebon hair stopped in the middle of her back, shaping around her almost alabaster face. Normally, this effect would cause the person to look ghastly and unwell, but for her it only enhanced her allure, because in her eyes there was no malice, just a caring soul. Her hands were tucked neatly in front of her, and concern flashed through her angelic features on her face when she spotted the pig-tailed martial artist in the dojo.

This was the third day, that Ranma had been practicing his art in the dojo this late at night, the wa of the house had woken her gently from her slumber. By nature, Kasumi was a light sleeper. So usually she would be able to hear the soft steps Ranma took when he went down the steps. However, that event which had happened in the past few days had taxed her both physically and emotionally.

Thankfully, the epicenter of the event that transpired a few days ago was not the Tendo Dojo and nowhere near here. The absolute fallout and structural damage was astronomical. Kasumi, absentmindedly, rubbed her wrist still remembering what had happened that had led to this currently frustrated Ranma.

The day right after that incident, Ranma was absolutely furious. That event was the straw that had broke the camel's back. Ranma, for the first time in the almost four years he was in Nerima, initiated attacks on all of his rivals. He attacked them on sight, and every single time he attacked them, he did not hold back, but was using his full strength as he pummeled and beat down on Mousse, Kodachi, Gosunkugi, and Tatewaki, absolutely mercilessly.

Unlike him, he had completely ignored Akane and Ukyo throughout the day, even when they tried to apologize to him multiple times. He was attacking Ryouga and Shampoo as well, even though their role was minimal.

The second day was not pretty at all, though Ranma himself was not attacking anyone. He was holding onto his rage, anger, and disappointment into a soul of ice. The soul of ice was so frigid that the occasionally stray water that would have hit him to trigger his curse were turned instantly to ice. Even though some of the ice had cut him, he had just walked away like nothing had happened.

Though Ranma himself did not fight during the second day, it was not to say that there was not any fighting. The second day also marked the arrival of the Phoenix, the Musk, and the Amazons. Kiima led a dozen of the Phoenix warriors, Lime led a dozen Musk warriors, and Soap led a dozen Amazons. As soon as this conglomeration of the Bakanyalan Mountain tribes saw Ranma, they had dropped to one knee and called him the Guardian of the Mountain. For the first time since the incident, Ranma had some other emotion on his face, other than pain, anger, and betrayal reflected on his tired countenance, a look of confusion. When they told him their mission, he gave them a sad smile then asked them not to kill any one that was involved. The beating of his Ranma's rivals that day was not a pretty sight.

The group of combined alchemist of three tribes had came up with a salve that would make the skin, subsequent organ and bone resilient enough to take any beating. Afterwards, each rival was then beaten to a pulp.

Ranma was cold and distant to everyone except for her, Kasumi. She saw the pain and defeat that he so wanted to surrender himself into. During those two days she had just looked on, a pain deep in her heart seeing the life in his eyes dying out a little bit every single day. She wanted to reach out so badly to him. But today, he was smiling again, it was as if he had finally found a solution to his problem.

Now, she looked on worriedly at the young man in front of her finally stopped his shadowboxing. When he turned his head, the moonlight reflected off of his face, a look of complete and utter desolation on his face. He slowly wobbled his way to a side of the dojo. She slowly took some steps forward toward the martial artist. She heard the pilling up of a floor board and saw him reached within and pulled out something wrapped in cloth. Ranma clamped the clothed wrapped item under his arm and slowly walk to the center of the dojo, kneeling down, he took off the cloth that was wrapped around the item, revealing a sheathed tanto.

Seeing the glinting scabbard of the tanto, Kasumi slow steps turned into a ran, as she saw Ranma slowly unsheathing the sword and slowly turned the blade inside. Completely, not caring about the drizzle of rain that was slowly soaking her night gown, the moisture causing the gown to stick to her figure.

Ranma closed his eyes with fresh tears streaming down on his face, a decision finally made slowly push the blade in, he heard a scream which jolted him to a stop.

"NOOO RANMA!"

Ranma looked up and saw Kasumi standing in the entrance of the dojo. In a flash, she was beside him and tackled him to the ground, knocking the tanto out of his hands.

Kasumi did not know when she started crying, but she did not care. Her arms wrapped tightly around Ranma, and she was raining soft kisses all over his face.

"Don't you dare kill yourself, Ranma" she said while alternating between kissing his face and pounding his chest with her small fists. Too stunned to do anything, Ranma just waited for her to calm down. Her tears and chest pounding slowed down and her hands splayed and flattened against his rigid muscles. Calming down a little, Kasumi snuggled closer into Ranma instead of getting off him.

After a while, Ranma spoke up, "Why, Kasumi? You saw how everyone was just using me, like my pop. I am so tired of the fighting, of the yelling, and most of all I am tired of being alone with just my honour. I do not know how to keep my own honour and the honour of everyone else. At least this way, I can still have own hon..." A look of complete and utter resignation on his face.

What happened next was completely unexpected, Kasumi looked into his eyes with a look of indignation, and slapped his face as hard as she could, cutting his line of thought off quite effectively. After slapping him, her hand lingered gently on his face and caressed it gently. Ranma didn't feel any pain from the slap, but it shocked enough to keep his mouth shut.

"Ranma, if you kill yourself what about me?" asked Kasumi

"You have Tofu" Ranma answered immediately.

"He has been gone for almost half a year. I don't know when he would be back, and I don't know if I want to wait for him for the rest of my life." Kasumi responded.

"I am sorry, Kasumi" Ranma said as he forcefully pushed Kasumi away and reached again for the fallen tanto by his side. Kasumi, with strength born of desperation, wrestled the tanto away from Ranma and threw it to the other side of the dojo. The blade cluttered to the ground, the metallic clink echoed hollowly within the dojo walls.

"Ranma, please just let me tell you of a story" Kasumi pleaded, "once this story is finished, if you still want to kill yourself I will not stop you."

Ranma let out a long sigh of resignation weighing his options, and slowly nodded.

Kasumi slowly kneeled down in front of him, "There was this little girl whom after the death of her mother gave up her dreams to become a doctor and became the surrogate mother for her own two younger sisters and the housewife for her father. She took care of the chores on a daily basis and had to raise her sisters as well day in and day out. Her life was just one big monotone, until a young brash martial artist came into her life." She licked her lips to moisten it before continuing.

Adjusting the front of her nightgown a little bit, Kasumi continued. Ranma ,looked on, finally noticing how the moist nightgown was sticking to her breast and he can clearly see her nipple protruding from her night gown, "At first his unruliness and his curse to become a girl scared her off completely. Even at first, this girl liked the boy, but for the sake of her family she chose to put up a face of obliviousness to hide any possible connections that can be formed. However, as the days turned into months, and months into years, this girl started to feel alive again. Not from the livelihood of the household but from the livelihood that this young brash boy had brought to her house."

A gentle smile blossomed on her face, "As she watched this boy selflessly helped his friends and his rivals, she started to regret turning down the engagement. For her, the happiness of her family came first. Even though when she was regretting that she turned down the engagement more and more each day, she still was helping this boy with her youngest sister. The foolish girl squandered every opportunity she had with this boy. For every step they took closer, she took five steps back. She watched helplessly as they grew further and further apart. She then somewhat ashamed of herself hoped the engagement to her younger sister would not work, so that she could have a chance with this boy because she had fallen in love with the boy from watching him given out so much but only ever wanted friendship in return."

Kasumi looked down demurely at her lap, and then adjusted her nightgown some more a soft blush formed on her face, "So you see Ranma, I need you to live. I don't want this household to go back to the way before. I know that it is selfish for me to ask, but please don't."

Ranma looked up not knowing what to say at all, Kasumi looked so cute while she fussed with the hem of her nightgown. Wait, cute? When did he start to think she was cute? He sighed and looked down again not knowing what to say, but as he looked up at Kasumi, not able to say no to her.

He slowly nodded and said, "Okay"

Kasumi responded by tackling him to the ground, he was too shocked to say anything. He opened up his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by Kasumi's soft tender lips planted on his.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Intangible Past

That dreadful and fateful day had started like any other day with the sun's morning light touching and illuminating the eastern sky as if the glowing ball of light wanted to grasp the entire globe with its brilliant fingers. Unlike any other day, however, there was a sense of foreboding in the air, as if nature itself was anticipating the events that would follow. The air was not thick, but the birds that usually sang to welcome the morning light had been eerily quiet. The Tendo Dojo was like a calm pond, nothing interesting. Suddenly a figure was seen sailing out of the second story window, and into the koi pond. This was the first ripple of disturbance to the serene pond that was Nerima.

As a wet redhead sputtered out of the pond, she looked up and saw a balding porcine man standing on the second floor window sill smirking down on her. This incensed the redhead to no end. Ranma jetted out of the koi pond straight for Genma, who tried to dodge by jumping out of the way.

Genma was too slow, the pig-tailed martial artist grappled her father and tossed him straight out the window, the rotund man flopped into the koi pond. Instead of a man coming up for air, a panda did. As soon as the panda resurfaced, Ranma jumped down feet first from the window sill onto the panda's face. Bouncing off of Genma's snout, effectively knocking the portly martial artist now panda out cold, Ranma flipped and landed onto dry grounds. He walked back into the house, and sat down in his usual spot next to the dining table.

-MR-

Shampoo stretched languidly like a cat, as she slowly crawled out of bed. She picked up the picture of her Airen that was sitting on her nightstand, and planted a kiss on his lips. She yelped as her bare feet touched the ice cold stone floor of her room. Her room was Spartan at best. It has a bed, a nightstand which acts double as a table with a half length mirror attached to the surface, and an overhead light. She slowly stood up from her bed with a look of admiration and awe, her eyes sparkled with a tint of sadness and an expanse of hope.

Today, it was the last chance she would get her Airen to come back to the village with her. This was a plan borne of desperation and pride. It would be a plan that would eclipse all other plans. This plan was foolproof because it was not a plan that would endanger one of Ranma's fiancés but all of them.

Shampoo just hoped that Ranma would choose her instead of any other fiancés. She sighed dreamily of her Airen, with his dexterous hands roaming all over her body. In her mind's eye, she was absolutely perfect for him. She knew martial art and she can cook better than Spatula Girl, and Kitchen Destroyer.

This was a plan that took more than three months to plan, and the catalyst was started by herself and the rest of Ranma's fiancés. They had dropped clues for the more persistent of Ranma's rivals, Mousse, Kuno, Ryouga, and Gosunkugi to stage kidnappings for all of his fiancés. Forcing him to choose, which one he would like to marry. At first they refused outright, but after two months of complete and utter standstill where Ranma's affection was involved, they decided to hatch a plan for it and the planning of the most elaborate plan which involved some heavy investments from the Kunos finally came to fruition today.

-MR-

"Shampoo" called a raspy, but clear voice from below, "Breakfast rush is almost here!"

Cologne who had been getting the Nekohanten ready for the morning rush, pogoed back into the kitchen on her cane, letting out a sigh of exasperation. She had warned her granddaughter that any and all plans which involved Ranma would and always have a flaw in it, no matter how foolproof it may be. She had tried to talk her granddaughter out of it. Barely three months had passed since the wedding disaster. Now would not be a good time to once again provoke the sleeping dragon that is Ranma Saotome. The Elder of the Joketsuzoku had gotten a report from the Amazon Council about the most recent incident in the heart of the Bayankala Mountains. If that incident holds any truths, she would not want to get on the pig-tailed martial artist's bad side. Though, she would never admit it in public, she could only beat Saffron to a draw, it was the mutual same level of fighting prowess that had kept the three rivaling tribes, Amazons, Phoenix, and the Musk on peaceful terms with each other, where one was not as competent in one aspect the other tribe excels.

Ranma, who had beaten all three leaders of the Bayankala tribes, had inadvertently became the Guardian of the Mountain, this is a feat that had not been accomplished for close to two thousand years. Though, the boy did not know it, he had the power to rally all three of the tribes to do his bidding. Any and all techniques of the three tribes were his to learn. If he wanted them to attack a nation, they would gladly follow and fight for him. This was a dangerous responsibility, their last leader was a corrupt man, he only coveted power and wealth. Thank the ancestors, he was killed in battle when he tried to invade the emperor and take the mandate from heaven to rightfully rule China.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, she heard the soft steps of her great granddaughter slowly walked down the steps dressed in her usual attires a gi pants and a Chinese silk shirt. Knowing her great-granddaughter, she was just as stubborn as Ranma, and there was no way to talk her out of what she would try to do. She just prayed to the ancestors that Shampoo wouldn't do anything that would permanently harm the relationship with the Tribe and Ranma. If they did harm Ranma in any way or form, All three tribes would not take kindly to the purpled-haired Amazons for hurting the Guardian. Banishment would be the last of her great granddaughter's problems, Shampoo would face a free for all hunt involving all of the Amazons, Phoenix, and Musk.

-MR-

The first part of the plan was in action. Early morning, Akane went on her usual morning jog. A lot of things were going through her head right now, for one the plan that involved Ranma. She was just so tired to fight for his affection. There were rare moments when it was worth it, but the daily grind of constantly fighting became old really fast. She thought by going through with the wedding would have at least calmed it down somewhat. Those hussies were still throwing themselves at Ranma, and Ranma was too much of a pervert to be trusted!

At first, she did not want any part in the plan, however those hussies had goaded her saying that Ranma would not choose her at all because she can't cook nor were she as good a martial artist as any of them. She would show them, Ranma was hers and that's that!

For the longest time, Akane had been trying to compare herself to Kasumi. She knew at least she was a better martial artist than her older sister was because of that one match she had won, where the loser would stop practicing the art. But for poise, posture, home keeping, and cooking, she was trying to compare a candle light to the sun. She would never admit it, but she had doubt sometimes about why Ranma had not went to the other hussies already, they were right to some extent. She was not as pretty, nor was she as capable of a martial artist, nor can she cook as well as those hussies.

As soon as she rounded a corner, a shuriken shot out from the tree, she just rounded. The shuriken hit her sleeping point precisely, and she promptly collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Sasuke, the Kuno resident ninja, jumped out from the tree the shuriken came out of, and quickly bound Akane up with a long piece of rope. Wrapping her arms and legs tightly together like a mummy, so she would not have any leverage, and bounded to the roof top heading to the location that Master Kuno instructed him to go.

One down, three to go.

-MR-

Ryouga did not know how exactly he would kidnap Shampoo, though he wanted to be with Akane more than anything else. He did not know whether this plan would work, he guessed after almost three years of hopelessly chasing after Akane. This plan of forcing Ranma choose may backfire if he did chose Akane. However, after what had happened in Jusendo, he knew that Ranma was leaps and bounds better than himself. He did not realize how much Ranma had held back in their spar until he saw how Ranma fought against that Phoenix God.

He can think, he just chose not to do so. He was not stupid. He looked over at Gosunkugi who was babbling on and on about how his voodoo dolls would make Akane choose him after all was done. Ryouga sighed and followed Gosunkugi so he would not get lost again. His ear picked up the ring ring of a bike bell.

He took off one of his bandannas and charged it with his ki and threw it directly at the bike. Shampoo tried to dodge out of the way on instinct, she lost control of her bike and drove the bike into the steel reinforced concrete. Her head impacted against it, she was knocked out cold. The bandana took an improbable path returning back to his hand and smacked the voodoo boy as collateral damage, Knocking him out. Now, he had two unconscious bodies with him. Pig boy looked from the unconscious form of Gosunkugi to Shampoo, and sighed as he picked up Shampoo's body might as well stick to plan. He closed his eyes and picked a random direction and started walking...

Two down...sort of.

-MR-

"Ohohohohohohoho" A young woman in leotard with her black hairs tied to the side cackled. She would be pretty if not for the crazed glint in her eyes. Her plans to get her Ranma-sama to be hers would finally come true today, she looked up at the huge picture of a male Ranma posted above her head.

"Oh Ranma-sama" she sighed with huskiness in an almost high tenour voice she continued "If you had giving in earlier, then things would not come down to this" her smile became a twisted maniacal expression. She looked down at the potion in her hand, this potion is a potent extract from a genetically engineered rose that she had been working on for the past month. This potion would cause the person who drank it to feel absolutely repulsed by the first thing they saw. She took her potion and ran out to the warehouse where the boys brought the fiances.

Just when she was about to exit the Kuno Mansion, a bokken flashed out knocking Kodachi out. Tatewaki dragged Kodachi making sure he was bumping into as many pebbles, rocks, and corners as possible. He created a long trail of blood from the Kuno Mansion to the rendezvous point.

Three down, just one more remaining...

-MR-

Ukyo woke up to the sound of her alarm in the morning. She stretched and yawned with her arms extended. Today is the day and she knew that her Ranchan would choose her over the other hussies. She knew that her Ranchan was too good for the other fiancés. After all, she was his cute fiancé, afterall.

Once she got her Ranchan, they would get married. Afterwards, she can finally get her father to reregister her onto the family registry as female. She can finally marry her Ranchan, and then they can move to Osaka, where her father's shop was. Her father had promised her that he would give her the shop once she married Ranma. Dreams of her Ranma raising their children while she work the shop ran through her head. As she put her clothes on and walked out of her restaurant in the morning sunlight, she noticed a figure slowly following her. She knew that it was time for her to act the part of a helpless abducted.

Today was inventory day, which meant she was going to the market and buying the raw ingredients for her Okonomiyakis. As she meandered around the market, a myopic Chinese boy in white robe was following her inconspicuously. She stopped to look at the shrimp and pork, when she saw Kasumi strolling down the street looking at the shops and talking with the sellers.

"Morning, Kasumi" Ukyo called out as Kasumi walked by.

Kasumi stopped and graced her with one of those serene smiles, "Morning, Ukyo-chan" she responded

The conversation, then, degenerated to small talks about fresh produce and common marketplace gossip.

Seeing his target stopped, Mousse thought this was the best time to strike and threw out dozens of different chains, the chains wrapped the wrists of his target. The sudden scrambling of venders when they saw the chains shot out of nowhere, caused rustling noises everywhere. The noise was loud enough to drown out the sudden scream from Kasumi, before she can scream again, chains shot out again wrapping themselves tightly around her mouth and her eyes, effectively gagging and blindfolding her. Kasumi went into shock, unable to move. Before she could recover, Kasumi felt she was pulled up and was carried over the buildings. Her head smacked into a side of a wall and the blackness of unconsciousness claimed her.

Last one, Now It is time for the second part of the plan...

-MR-

Ranma strolled down the streets of Nerima, this had been an oddly peaceful day. There were no random attacks, and no "Ranma Prepare to Die!", No Shampoo landing on his face with that bike of hers, and, no Kunos coming for his blood or his love depending on which form he was in. This much needed respite had him thinking about the predicament that he was currently in with the fiancés and his own honour. Ever since, the wedding fiasco, everyone had been given him a wide berth.

Though he may not have shown it, he had been forced to grow up for the past eight years or so of his life. He did not know whether for better or for worse, he had been hiding his true intelligence behind his jock persona. He created it not because he wanted to fool someone, but he created it out of survival. He knew that his pops did not approve of intelligence, he called anything that is not related to living or the art a waste of time.

His change in attitude had started, when Genma sent him into town on one of those "speed training", where he was to steal people's wallets and then return them back to Genma. He had tried to steal the wallet of a traveling Shaoling Monk from China in the city of Kyoto. As soon as his hand reached into his pocket, the Monk grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. Ranma responded by trying to elbow him in the stomach. The monk dodged it and punched him in the head hard, knocking him out completely. When he came to, he woke up in a spartan room with a futon and nothing else. The monk was kneeling beside him wetting a towel with warm water and placing it on top of his head. The monk never told Ranma his name. He told the young Ranma to just address him as Sensei.

That week, he had spent with Sensei, was the most enlightening experience he ever had in his short life. Sensei taught him to be a warrior one must not only be able to harness the body, but also the mind and the spirit. From that point on, whenever they were in a major city, Ranma would sneak away to a library to read and to meditate whenever his father sent him off to do "speed training". He no longer wanted to keep up that facade anymore. It was too tiresome to keep up and it no longer had a purpose. His stupidity act had gotten him nowhere, maybe another approach is necessary now.

When the pigtailed martial artist walked into the market place. A frantic shop owner ran up to him, "Ranma, one of em Chinese Amazons abducted Ukyo and Kasumi while they were shopping!" shouted at him with a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Where'd he go?" Ranma asked.

"I'm not sure, but he was pulling em toward the warehouse down by the docks." answered the shop keep.

Ranma jumped onto a roof and rooftop hopped toward the docks. Night's tendrils of darkness were slowly encroaching onto the current light sky. Dense clouds of precipitation were slowly gathering overhead. Ranma looked up at the sky, and shook his head in defeat, knowing that his luck would run out soon enough.

-MR-

Kasumi slowly awoken with a throbbing headache, the first thing she felt her wrist bound tethered together with a straw string, and the movement of her legs were constricted as well. The bound was chafing her wrists, she tried to call out for help, but found her mouth was gagged with the same straw that bound her arms. She slowly opened up her eyes and looked down and saw her legs were sacked inside a rice bag. She wiggled around a little, but she found all of her movement to be completely confined.

She looked up, the luminescent street light were filtering through the small windows around the warehouse. The light illuminated across from her and she saw all of Ranma's fiancés except Shampoo tied up with their hands together hanging from crane hooks. Every single one of them looked like they were unconscious.

Kodachi looked the worst, as if she was dragged here purposely, while being bumped into everything. Her leotard was ripped in several places, and it barely hid any decency that she had. She had gashes and scrapes all over her arms and every part of her body.

The other fiancés were completely wrapped with chains. As her eyes adjusted to the darker environs, she noticed a tall figure of almost impossible size standing off to the side. A long large cloak wrapped around the figure, his movement was awkward and slow. He was leaning this way and that as he was pacing up and down as if waiting for something to happen.

-MR-

Ranma jumped on top of the gate as he looked around trying to find anything that would lead him to Kasumi.

Out of everyone, Kasumi was the only one who had took the time to talk to him and tried to help him workout with Akane and her volcanic temper. If not for Kasumi's gentle guidance, he would still be completely lost where relationship was concerned. She guided him through some of the toughest times of his life while he had been in Nerima. She was the one who patched up his minor injuries that does not need Doc Tofu's attention. Ever since, the doc left, she was the last person in Nerima, who he could trust completely.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, he spotted blotches of dried blood leading to an ajar door, Ranma jumped down and walked to the door and carefully pushed the door open. The door opened up slowly with a tiny squeak of a rusty hinge.

There was a loud clicking of a switch and suddenly the entire warehouse was flooded with fluorescent white lights. Inside the warehouse, there was hundreds of crates stacked on top and next to each other. Some of the crates were covered by a heavy tarp. White walls leading up to the ceiling, and toward the top there were many small windows, that allowed some of the outside streetlights into the warehouse.

The sudden light completely blinded Ranma for a few seconds. Closing his eyes to allow himself to adjust to the sudden lights before venturing inside, Ranma carefully treaded into the warehouse, dashing from crate to crate quietly. He wanted to see what exactly he was getting himself into before acting.

The lighting allowed him to see the trail of fresh blood that had lead him into this warehouse much more clearer. He followed the blood trail to the very back of the warehouse, where the trail ended to a small puddle of blood that is slowly getting bigger. Following the dripping blood, he looked up and saw the hanging tied up forms of all of his more persistent admirers except for Shampoo. Off to the left side, he saw a gargantuan of a man standing there in a heavy robe, the hood of the robe covered his eyes, so he could not see who it was clearly.

He scanned quickly to the right and saw the crumpled form of Kasumi. The hooded figure spoke in a deep, distorted and digitized voice, obviously with a voice changer, "So the great Ranma Saotome finally came", the cloaked figure slowly turned around as Ranma started shaking Kasumi to wake her up.

"Who are you?" Ranma asked as he went into a relax fighting stance.

"Who I am is of inconsequence, but what you do need to know is that you can only choose one of these girls to save. You have till they reach the floor, if they are still attached to the hook, then their pressure would cause the floor to give in and fall down below to a certain death. Whoever you chose to save you will marry!" The figure turned around and pulled a lever and the cranes began to move down gradually. The sudden jerk due to the initial movement of the cranes awoke all four of his suitors.

Ranma watched helplessly trying to decide which girl to save, but he couldn't choose one, he's honour would not allow it. However, they were too far apart to free them all at the same time once they had reached the floor, and the lever was too far up for him to climb up and pull it. He looked helplessly as his three suitors struggle against the bonds.

Just when he was about to jump into action, he heard a loud tear coming from the exit that the perpetrator trying to beat a hasty retreat. The gargantuan of a man was so hurried to get away that he did not notice his long robe got caught on the lever. Instead of one man falling to the ground, Mousse, Kuno, and Gosunkugi fell out of the long robe. When they fell, they pulled the lever the other way, which caused the slow decent of Ranma's suitors to a complete holt.

Ranma took a look at the pile of his rivals and a flaming aura of anger burst forth, a slow simmering flame of rage slowly licking his rivals. He slowly paced up to the crumpled pile that consists of his rivals.

-MR-

Mousse was scared. The aura of pure rage that Ranma projected was degrees stronger than any other aura he had ever seen. He watched as every single step that Ranma took, the heat from his feet was melting the concrete that he was walking on. It was as if he was looking at the incarnation of death slowly clenching down on the remaining morsels of life that he had left.

He was too stunned by the pure undiluted rage, and he knew that if he should run, he could never outrun Ranma. He knew the old Ranma was easy target, and easy to forgive, but this is a completely new Ranma. It was as if a new Ranma took over as soon as he saw them tumbled out of the robe. He heard the scuttle of Gosunkugi's arms as he tried to back off away from Ranma as far as he could. Kuno was blabbering about how Ranma finally showed his true colours as an evil sorcerer. Which, Mousse chose to filter it out for his own sanity's sake.

-MR-

Ranma was furious, no he was beyond furious. He was absolutely livid. How dare they try to control who he needed to marry. He had his own honour to consider and forcing him to make a snap decision would not help the issue whatsoever. He had not been angrier than anything else in his short life.

He walked very dangerously past Mousse, who immediately scuttled out of his wake, and walked toward Gosunkugi, but Kuno whether it was out of stupidity or pride he stepped in between Gosunkugi and Ranma with a live katana in his hands ready to strike Ranma.

"The foul sorcerer have finally reared its ugly head, indeed. Fiend I strike at thee!" Kuno jumped into action with a downward strike aiming at Ranma's skull. Ranma easily sidestepped the attack, and stuck out a foot. As Kuno went past Ranma, the pigtailed martial artist elbowed the back of the kendoist. As Kuno stumbled forward from Ranma's strike and over Ranma's stuck out foot. Ranma in one swift movement, while the upperclassman was trying to find his balance, slid the blade out of his hands and snapped it in half, by bending it over his knees. He looked at his bloodied right hand from holding the live blade completely uncaring, and too enraged to notice the pain. He umphed, and tossed the blade away to the side like trash. He continued his slow pace toward Gosunkugi, who was curled in a ball trying to make himself as small as possible.

Ranma knew there was only a handful of people that can come up with a plan this sophisticated. The weakest link, if he wanted to know the truth, was Gosunkugi. Gosunkugi was weak in both constitution and willpower. He knew with proper intimidation, he would get the information he needed. Ranma was too enraged to care about honour and decency. What he needed now was information, and that he knew he could get it out of Gosunkugi.

-MR-

Kuno turned around and tried to do a follow up strike on Ranma, but he found his hands were empty. As he was trying to look around for his blade, he heard the cluttering of something metallic hit the ground. He turned his head and with horror on his face as the pieces of the Kuno honour blade hit the ground. The madness in his eyes cleared for a few seconds. He closed his eyes and collapsed to the ground onto his knees. When he opened his eyes, the madness that was within was gone, replaced was the anguished look of a lost broken soul. Kuno slowly staggered back to his feet, and stumbled out of the warehouse toward the Kuno Mansion, completely uncaring about the outcome.

-MR-

When Ranma finally stopped in front of Gosunkugi, there was a very strong sour and bitter smell in the air. He looked down and saw the front of the voodoo boy's pants was wet. With a look of disgust, he picked him up with one hand by his collar and pulled him in, their nose almost touching.

"So who was it that planned all this?" Ranma asked through gritted teath.

Behind him there were sudden outbursts of protest from Ukyo, Akane, and Kodachi, Ranma turned his head sideways and glared back with flat disdain in his eyes. To which the girls, wisely shut up and watch on with morbid horror on their faces. They watched, as three months of planning going down the drain in a matter of seconds. Normally, Ranma would not resort to intimidation but he was too angry and was oh so tired of the daily grind that he could take it no longer. This was the last straw that have broke Ranma's patience, that if considered, rivaled even Siddhartha.

"E-E-Everybody" Gosunkugi stammered out when he finally found his voice.

With one word, the plan the fiancés had so carefully concocted for almost a month or so, all went away in a matter of seconds. Ranma was so furious he could not fathom begin to boil, but he needed to confirm who everybody exactly filter down to.

A rage he did not know he had in him welled up in him, as he was so enraged that he could no longer speak, he pointed to Akane, Gosunkugi nodded, then he pointed to each of his fiances and rivals, to which Gosunkugi just nodded. Then he asked about both Shampoo and Ryouga, to which Gosunkugi just nodded as well. The rage that Ranma tried to suppress erupted like a molten volcano.

Suddenly, Ranma bursted into motion, dashing everywhere first destroying the building, the cement walls crumpled with each strike from Ranma's fists. He then took hold of the steel enforced cranes and bent them in his grasp. He broke each off and threw them off with his fiances still attached to them. Just then a torrential rainstorm started. The rain poured in from the holes he had just made with his fiances. The rainstorm which normally would have turned him into a girl, was not changing him at all. As the heat from his rage was literally evaporating the water before it could hit his skin. He continued his rampage through the warehouse destroying everything in sight.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw some movement, he saw Kasumi tied up and gagged sitting in a corner of the warehouse where it was previously obscured by boxes and crates. Her whimpering and fear in her expressive soft brown eyes caused a sudden halt to his action. It was as if Kasumi was asking him to stop attacking everything. She calmed him down more so than the rainstorm did. He stopped and saw the destruction that he has wrecked. He felt the rain hit his skin, cooling his skin and his temperament. As he slowly transformed from male to female, he surveyed the destruction he had caused. Almost every wooden boxes in sight were reduced to splinters, the walls were peppered with holes he had punched through. The metal cranes were broken and bent out of shape...at least what was left of the cranes.

She slowly took a few very calming deep breaths trying to recenter herself in the midst of his rage. The unconscious remains of his two rivals littered the floor, and her fiancés were nowhere in sight he took them and threw them in three separate directions.

Ranma walked up to Kasumi and used her strength to break the homemaker out of the binds that she was in, he then proceeded to scoop Kasumi up into her arms. Ranma grabbed one of the tarps from the crates and threw it over them to ward off the rain and bounded out of one of the holes in the ceiling she made with one of her fiancés.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Demistify

As the sun slowly crept its way up the western sky, its fiery tendrils illuminated the sky gradually. This scene would be absolutely splendid for a Saturday morning, if not for the three staggering forms stumbling toward the center of Nerima. They were leaning on each other for support. This would be the only time that these three: Kodachi, Akane, and Ukyo worked together toward something, which had actually worked.

The previous night had been an absolute disaster, it seemed that they had finally found Ranma's limit, their entire body burnt from the pain of being beaten within an inch of their lives. Thank small wonders for passing out, as they did not feel much pain due to the bliss of unconsciousness. However they woke up with their entire bodies aching from head to toe. Months of planning went down the drain, because of one stupid mistake.

All they wanted was for Ranma to finally make a choice between them. Albeit, it was to prove which one of them had won the proverbial prize horse. To them it had always been a competition from the start, which one of them can cook better, which one of them is a better martial artist, which one of them had the most sex appeal, the list of what they competed in was endless. Honour, Family, Law, these ideals did not mean as much as winning. These, to them, were simply a stepping stone to the end; the end justified the means, so to speak.

They never asked one question throughout the ordeal, nor did they care enough to ask to begin with: What did Ranma wanted? None of them had asked about his hope and dreams, while all they ever talked about was the role of which Ranma would play in their lives after they "won" him.

Each of his fiances had been obsessed with this notion of winning, from the simple reason of wanting him so others would not win to securing a position.

Shampoo wanted Ranma to help solidify her position in the tribe, and become the uncontested next matriarch after she broke in the "Wild Horse." That fateful day when Ranma defeated her for the food was also the first day the Amazon had ever lost in a Martial Arts contest ever. It was infuriating that such an outsider had defeated her so easily. Her Jusenkyo curse was not a result of her failed attempt at the female Ranma's death, but so much as the pursuit of an invalidated Kiss of Death. The council threw out her Kiss of Death, on the ground that she was being a sore loser. She was too infuriated to listen to the Amazon Council, and pursued the Kiss of Death anyways.

When she realized that the person who had defeated her back in the village was a strong warrior, she thought that it would be easier to secure her position as Matriarch and be forgiven of her current transgression of not following the wishes of the Amazon Council. Furthermore with a strong husband like Ranma, she would silence any and all oppositions that may come up as a result of her disobedience. It was fortuitous, that neither her grandmother nor any other elders had ever questioned how the Kiss of Marriage was given. Shampoo saw the male Ranma and saw immediately the potential of him being a trophy husband. As his martial arts prowess much surpassed any of the males in the tribe. He was exactly what she wanted in a husband.

As Kiss of Marriage can only be given after a formal challenge for her hand, after a Marriage Match. Shampoo did not disclose the tidbit that no match was offered, but only that Kiss of Marriage was given. The council assumed as always with these cases it was simply buyer's remorse as it was so common nowadays. She knew that the Kiss of Marriage, would be invalidated just as quickly. The consequence of wasting so much resource for the false pursuit for a trapped Kiss of Marriage was death by acid vat for those who had transgressed this law. After the first month, Cologne had figured out that the Kiss of Marriage was invalid, however she had agreed with Shampoo that Ranma would be an asset to the tribe. A few days ago after a memo was given to Cologne, she had refused to help Shampoo anymore with the pursuit.

Akane's grudge against Ranma was much more primal and less calculating than Shampoo's schemes. What Akane wanted was quite simple, the complete and absolute dominance over Ranma. Before Ranma had come to Nerima, she was considered the most powerful Martial Artist in Nerima, however, now after a few years after Ranma had showed up on her doorstep, she was arguably one of the worst Martial Artist in Nerima, not because she wasn't good, but everybody that Ranma had attracted to Nerima were so much better than she had ever been. Akane just wanted to win something in her life. She felt absolutely inferior in her household, with Kasumi helping around the house with chores and cooking, while Nabiki handled the finances. Akane had nothing that she could contribute.

Not to mention the tailspin in sexuality she had to suffer because of Ranma. She was confused as she did not know what she was, as she was attracted to both forms of Ranma. However, for the longest time she had felt nothing but disdain and disgust toward the opposite sex, thanks to the daily routine of bashing army of perverted boys that Kuno made her go through for almost two years. She was on the verge of coming out of closet to her family before Ranma had showed up. Then she saw him naked in the shower, which caused something within her to stir, this feeling she felt was so unnatural and disgusting, yet pleasant as well. It confused her as to what her sexual preference was, as a result so she lashed out at the source of the discomfort: Ranma. Ranma was like a doll to her, she owns him because of the marriage contract, and that was that.

Kodachi or the Black Rose wanted Ranma for two things and two things only. Sex and more sex, ever since she laid eyes on Ranma she wanted to kidnap Ranma and lock him up down in her dungeon and do delicious and undiluted torture to him, and make him lick and beg for release as she teased him endlessly with candles, whips, clamps, and ropes. She just wanted to fuck him once, and decide if she liked him as a pet enough to keep for the rest of her life, or until she got bored with him, whichever one came first. She simply wanted to ride her "Wild Horse." She did not expect anything more nor less from her Ranma-sama. Although, she was quite certain that she would never get tired of riding him. However that remained yet to be seen.

Ukyou was a romantic, and as a result what she wanted was the most convoluted and delusional of the four girls, even after Kodachi. As she was convinced that in the end that Ranma would choose her, the cute fiance, as opposed to Shampoo, Akane, or Kodachi. Her reasoning was founded on too many Disney movies at a young age and the willing hardship she had put herself through in order to set up for her grotesquely grandiose finish. She believed that her Prince Charming/Knight in Shining Armor would rescue her from the hardship of living as a man. One that she convinced herself that was what her father wanted her to do from one slip he had told her mother while she was four years old that he had hoped for a son.

In her mind she constructed this fantastical finish, where Ranma would abandon his own honour and choose her by professing his undying love for her. After their big western style wedding, He would carry her to their honeymoon suite and then he would unwrap her chest bindings, and free her true-self to him. She would be impregnated on her wedding night with fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. The boy would be named Kenji and the girl, Sakura. After their wedding, Ranma would help her serve the customers, while she cooked on the grill. Just like those Disney movies, they would live happily ever after.

As they staggered toward the Tendo Dojo, because the only person after Tofu left who was able to take care of such injuries was Kasumi. The rest of the Nerimians created a wide berth wherever they went. Hushed whispers and discreet pointings greeted them. After four years of chaos with the epicenter at the Tendo Dojo. Whenever any rumours spread around, it was usually about Ranma and his associates. Ranma somehow became the heart of Nerima. The citizens knew the difficulties that he faced on a daily basis, and was thankful that they did not have to face the type of choices Ranma had to face.

Adding on to his daily hustle and bustle, he always found time somehow to help those was in need, a simple hand in construction that he had indirectly caused or a helpful hand with cleaning leaves or a mess caused by an accident. Ranma, even with his brashness and bravado, had somehow warmed his way into Nerimian's hearts. Nerimians saw him for what he was, a kind-hearted young man with no malice nor calculations, willing to help whoever and whenever. All he wanted in return was acceptance, a place where he belonged. His cheerfulness, confidence, and resilience were drawn upon by Nerimians to go through their daily lives.

Not surprisingly, what had happened down by the warehouse was spreading like wild fire. Although little was known, as to what had actually happened, but the aftereffects of the events were seen and talked about. Different stories and possible events were pieced together by the citizens by what little information they had accessed to. The battered states of the three only added to the rumour mill of what might actually had happened, the lack of the Shampoo girl raised a few questions as to what had happened.

-MR-

"WHERE AM I NOW?" screamed a directionally challenged boy.

Wait for it...

"Ranma, this is all your fault!"

A big great metallic arch loomed in the distance, Ryouga had been wondering around for hours trying to find the warehouse in Nerima, where they agreed to meet for Ranma to finally choose a fiance, he was going to marry. The fact that he somehow knocked out both of his guides was the reason for his current predicament had completely slipped his mind.

This shout roused Shampoo who was trying to recover from the concussion to the head. She woke hazily, her vision unfocused, and what she saw first was Ryouga, not the inside of warehouse. Since it was still dark outside, she did not think that they were anywhere else but Nerima.

"Why Pig boy yell too too loud?" complained Shampoo groggily

She looked around and couldn't find Gosunkugi,

"Where Spook Boy?"

"HOTCHA!" out of nowhere a diminutive midget grandmaster of Anything Goes jumped on to Shampoo's breasts and rubbed his face into those soft malleable mammaries.

Out in the distance, a dark haired lanky form and a portly form with a bandanna on its head took this opportunity to tip toe their way in the other direction of the ancient master. Once they were at a good distance away, they took off running.

Shampoo tried to struggle and hold down her disgust, just did not have the strength to push him off.

"Shampoo, my girl, what are you doing in St. Louis?" Happosai asked nonchalantly as he continued handling Shampoo's breasts. He looked up and saw Ryouga, "oh, never mind"

During this momentary lapse in realization, Shampoo was able to push the old pervert off.

"RUN NOW, STUPID PIG BOY" Shampoo yelled, shocking Ryouga from his temporary double realization that he was in St. Louis and he was enjoying holding on to Shampoo. Without thinking twice Ryouga turned around and ran the other direction from Happosai.

Happosai gave chase, not willing to let go of such delicious melons, as Happosai's pursuit took a sharp corner, Ryouga and Shampoo were nowhere to be found. He shrugged and went back to what he was doing, tracking down his worthless apprentices. He was starting to feel that Soun and Genma were no longer worth his time training anymore.

-MR-

As Ryouga ran like the hounds of Satan were chasing him, while clutching on to Shampoo as steadfastly as he possibly could. After a while of not hearing any sounds of pursuit he looked around, and he saw the staggering forms of Ukyo, Akane, and Kodachi shambled their way away from them. Shampoo feeling a lot better now, reluctantly, got out of Ryouga's embrace, and led him toward her fellow fiances.

"Why you hurt?" Shampoo asked in her broken Japanes, with a faked vacant look in her eyes.

"Ranma attacked us" was the simple response Akane answered with.

Ukyo glanced from Akane and then to Shampoo and nodded, "Ranchan was angry, I haven't seen him this angry ever"

Shampoo's eyes opened up wide in shock, "Bad, This very bad" she murmured to herself

Shampoo for once in her life did not know what to do, nor had she made a contingency plan for such a situation. She had assumed like everyone else that it was incapable for Ranma to be angry. When presented with the fact, that Ranma was indeed human and capable of anger. She did not what to do in response. Much of her plans were based upon the exploitation of Ranma's good nature and kind heart. Now those plans, she could not initiate because the field which she played upon changed completely.

Right now, she could not even cut her losses and tried to kill Ranma, because it would do nothing for her end game of becoming the first uncontested Matriarch of the Amazons, because she had lost a fight to female Ranma.

Kodachi who was not used to such intense combat, passed in and out of lucidity, she was able to hear bits and pieces of the conversation. However, she was not conscious enough to understand what was going on.

-MR-

As the fiance brigade slowly approached their destination, a sense of foreboding greeted them as they trudged up the few steps of the Tendo Dojo. Kasumi greeted them at the door as usual, and saw the conditions that the fiances were in, she immediately ushered them into the spare room that was reserved for Grandfather Happosai, since that room usually only consisted of a cot for the odd nights he did stayed. Kasumi very quickly set up a triage station for the three battered girls, so she could tend to their wounds.

Kasumi never held grudges; it was one of the things people loved about her. She was absolutely genuine in her care of everyone, no matter what they have done in the past. She had wanted to be a nurse even before her mother had died, she did not see the sick as not human, but those that require help and care. She saw everyone as her family first and did not dwell on surface deep qualities, like race, and past misdeeds. She only judged people of their current deeds. She was not to say that she was completely naive.

Being the daughter of Tendo Kimiko, she knew how to stand up for herself, and be able to see through people's intentions very quickly. After their mother's death, the Tendo girls tried their best to preserve one aspect of Tendo Kimiko, because they knew there was no way to replace her in this life or the next. Kasumi took on her mother's kindness and generosity, Nabiki took on her mother savviness and shrewdness, lastly, Akane took on her mother's quick temper and sense of instant justice. Out of the three of them, Nabiki was one who retained most of her sanity and her independence.

Kasumi knelt next to her three patients and felt through their bodies, to check for any broken or dislocated bones in their bodies. Since she did not have access to some of the equipment Tofu had, Kasumi had to feel her way up and down her patient's bodies finding nothing, figured they most likely bruised their bones with no internal bleeding. As she went to get more wet clothes for her patients. She saw Ryouga pacing back and forth outside of the house.

-MR-

Ranma was out for a walk to clear his head. After the events of last night, Ranma mind was in a fog. He just did not know what he would do with his anger, with the helplessness. It was the first time in his life that he had lashed out completely, like his mind was finally opened up to a release he had clamped down upon his entire life. His father's constant badgering of not showing emotions, anger was one of them.

Anger had clouded his judgement and he did not know how to react to the world. Yesterday, he felt there was a shift in his mind. All the years of injustice done by the world and subsequently a result of his father's action rushed down his spine. For once in his life, he wanted to lash out, make those responsible pay for the Nekoken, for Jusenkyo, for the hunger he felt on the road, for the entrapment he felt with his current situation with fiances.

On his way back, he passed the ladle lady who was washing her sidewalk, without failing, she managed to hit Ranma with her water. She just shrugged and continued walking. It was actually refreshing, it felt like his anger just cleansed out of his system with the water running down her currently soaked silk shirt.

As she walked up to the Tendo Dojo, thinking that she had finally found some peace with her current status of life, she heard the battle cry:

Her peace of mind, like any peace when she had a grasp of it somehow was only temporary.

"RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!"

-MR-

Ryouga did not understand how he was not able to land any of his hits at all on Ranma. Not long ago, their hand to hand combat was on par with each other. The only way of him to be better was by using Ki blasts. Now he was not even able to land any hit.

Ryouga was becoming angry, "You honourless bastard, how dare you train secretly to become better than me?"

"You just don't get it? Do you pork breath?" Ranma taunted while weaving in and out of Ryouga's punches and kicks, feeling slighted of being called honourless.

"I have been holding back, because I thought you were my friend" Ranma stopped and stepped into his defenses and punched him in the stomach hard. Feeling his anger returning with a vengence, his punch was hard enough for Ryouga to feel it. Enough force for Ryouga to want to throw up because of it, Ranma looked on completely unfazed as he switched on to the offensive.

"But instead you are no better than Shampoo, when it comes to manipulating someone's emotions." Ryouga ducked a punch to his solar peluxes, but missed the follow up leg sweep that put him completely on his back a few feet away from Ranma.

"I kept your Jusenkyo curse a secret on the honour of our friendship, but you abused it." Ryouga wobble back up to his feet, wanting to respond, but the punch to his stomach caused him to weeze out painfully from his mouth,

Ranma was completely in control of the fight as well as the conversation. Once found his balance, Ryouga rushed in and threw a punch at Ranma, but instead of it landing he felt Ranma grabbed his arm and twisted her body around his arm, finding leverage in his forward momentum. Ryouga felt Ranma swung around his arm finding her footing on his shoulders, and locking his upper arm with her shins and his forearm with her things. He felt his arm was then pulled up forcibly fully barring his entire arm. Ranma's extra weight brought Ryouga down on his back, tucking his head in so he would not bang his head against the floor, reducing the chances of a concussion. Ranma's feet were firmly pressed against Ryouga's shoulders. Ryouga felt his arm twist, and heard a sickening pop from his shoulder, signaling his arm had been cleanly dislocated out of his arm socket.

The pain currently suppressed by adrenaline, Ryouga felt himself picked up by Ranma and was thrown hard against the wall of the Tendo yard, he slid down against the wall. His moment of respite was cut short as he felt sudden pressure on his stomach, his vision became blurry from weariness, he felt Ranma rained punches at Amaguriken speed punctuating each syllable, without calling out the technique, pulverizing his face completely.

"I thought one day you would wake up and see that I had been trying to help you when we were in grade school. I did not have to bring your lost bacon butt to school every day. I did not have to share what I have won from our bread competition. If you had stopped and thought for even a second, I had been trying to be your friend from the beginning. Now I see that you don't value our friendship at all, nor do you care for honour. Only honour when it benefits you." The last two final punches landed next to his face feeling anger with those last two words,

"Hey Akane, you want me to stop picking on poor Ryouga? Here watch this!" Ranma grabbed Ryouga and grappled him so he had no leverage against him and proceeded to dunk the lost boy head first into the koi pond...

-MR-

Akane laid in the temporary triage station, looking up at the ceiling of the room, trying to sort out her feelings for a certain pig-tailed martial artist. Her mind for some reason always return to one single thought as the reason for everything: "Ranma is MINE." The complexity of her thought process went something like this:

Question: "Do I like him?"

Answer: "I don't know, but he's MINE!"

Question: "What do I like about him?"

Answer: "I don't know and I don't care, but he's MINE!"

Question: "Why is he mine?"

Answer: "Daddy gave him to me, so he's MINE!"

Question: "Do I like him as a boy, girl, or both?"

Answer: "eww, eww, and ewwwwww, but he's MINE!"

This type of answers went on for a couple more questions, thinking that she had sufficiently answered her own questions. Akane was able to admit the possessiveness in the safety of her own mind; she could never voice it out loud. She knew if she voiced it she would be married to the jerk and marrying means doing icky things with him. More importantly, it would make her a pervert and she was not a pervert so she would never say that Ranma was hers.

She heard from downstairs, "RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!"

Akane, Shampoo, and Ukyo looked at each other separately and scrambled to get out of the house to watch this fight, as anybody would. What greeted downstairs was Kasumi sweeping the back porch looking on with her nose wrinkled up in disdain and Nabiki watching and munching on a sweet bun. The sudden gap in skill of Ryouga from Ranma was suddenly a huge chasm.

As they listened to the justified tirade that Ranma went on, Nabiki did not know whether or not to feel relieved or nervous that she was not the example that was given on instinct. She looked over at Shampoo who just looked on without flinching at the accusation, but she was definitely shaking from head to toe. Nabiki just shrugged uncaring, after she heard the account of what happened yesterday from Kasumi. She would be scared shitless as well, to incur the wrath of Ranma was no small feat. The last one who made that mistake, if accounts of Jusendo were accurate; someone had died because of it. Which was something definitely to be afraid about in her book, her attention went back to the fight, read beat-down.

The reaction to the fight ranged from terrified to horror, they uniformly cringed at the sound of dislocated bone that resonated across the Dojo, which was followed by the sound of Ryouga crashing gracelessly against the peripheral wall. Nobody was stupid enough, save one short tempered girl, to stop this merciless brawl. The fiances with last night's beating still fresh in their mind, took a step back unconsciously as Akane stepped forward...

Before she knew it, the words came out of her mouth, "Ranma, stop picking on Ryouga!"

-MR-

The pure undiluted rage and hurt that Ranma had in his eyes spoke volume of what that one sentence did to him for the duration of his stay at Nerima. Akane unwittingly scooted a step back, not knowing how to deal with an angry Ranma. What had happened next confounded Akane even more as she did not know why Ranma was forcefully getting Ryouga into cold water. She watched the change in front of her as Ryouga's curse took effect. A small black pig crawled out of the koi pond and then collapsed on the stones of the koi pond.

Akane was in shock.

She looked at the other spectators, trying to see if they knew about this through their facial expression. Kasumi had a genuinely surprised face, Nabiki was a bit harder to tell, but living with her for so long, Akane was able to pick up on the tells of Nabiki's poker face. She did not know about it either.

But the Amazon and the chef were not surprised at all, they knew. Ranma was standing there with a smug smirk across his head looking from Akane to P-chan. Akane came to the right conclusion that Ranma knew as well. That pervert...

Without a second thought, Akane brought out her trusty mallet and rushed at Ranma and swung down hard intent on smashing the pervert's head in. Her hit landed, but unlike other times Ranma got up and looked completely untouched by a hammer blow that usually left him crumbled on the ground.

"That's the last free hit you are going to get, Akane" Ranma said through gritted teeth.

Before Akane was ready, Ranma sprang into action, dashing into Akane's defenses and punched her jaw with a slow, but hard left hook. The force of the impact caused Akane to do a full 720 spin, so now that she was facing her assailant.

"You are cheating!" Akane yelled, "I wasn't ready!"

Ranma did not dignify that with a response, he pressed his advantage punching and kicking at Akane with deadly and accurate pace. He was not holding back his punches nor kicks. The feeble blocks that Akane were able to throw up could not stand the force of Ranma's attacks.

"What's the matter Akane?" Ranma asked provokingly "can't fight properly when I finally take you seriously?"

"I can beat you, if you stop cheating" Akane responded in the usual manner when she loses at any given time, denial of reality.

"There is no cheating in Anything Goes, everything is fair game! for example, I can punch you in the kidneys and it's not cheating" Ranma proceeded to throw a vicious jab to her exposed left kidney, which knocked the air out of her lungs and she screamed in agony. Akane fell down on her stomach, the pain was too much for her to handle.

Ranma crouched down in front of Akane and looked at the Tendo girl in the eyes. The pig tailed martial artist was determined to get through to this thickheaded ape of a brawler if it was the last thing she did.

"Do you admit defeat?" Ranma asked the coup de grace question

"No" Akane responded with a glare in her eyes.

Ranma just sighed and raised his hand flattening her palm, and proceeded to strike down on the Tendo girl's fragile neck...

End.


	4. Chapter 3

Misty Refuge

Chapter 3: Breaking through the Mist

Akane shut her eyes tight, bracing, hoping that her death would be swift and painless. Tendo Akane was going to die at the hand of her fiance. The man who had saved her countless times was also the man she was going to die to, the irony.

She did not know what to expect death would be. Death was something permanent, the ultimate admission of defeat. She could not admit she lost to Ranma, her pride would not allow her to do so. Nor was she in any positon to pull the Anything Goes secret technique, she was in way too much pain. Seconds stretched into eternity, as she waited for that final blow that would send her into the embrace of a Shinigami. A small part of her was actually looking forward to her own final slumber, she would finally be reunited with her mother.

Through out her life, she had never felt pain. Noone had ever hit her when she was young even when she was training with her father. Whenever she had cried, her mother or her father would come running. Her father could never really refuse anything she had asked of him. It was her mother that had given her a moral compass, she disciplined her when she was wrong, she was the one who had cleaned her scrapes, and told her what she did was wrong.

Tendo Kimiko was the one who had hunted down the rapists, whom the Japanese police could not capture, because those rape victims felt too embarrassed and shameful to their family to voice their status. Akane saw how devastating rape could do not only to the body but more importantly the mental scarring it created as a result of it. Her penchant for smashing pervert came from that and fear.

She was afraid that if she lost even one martial art match, she would not be able to defend herself anymore against those sick perverts. She built her confidence and pride on her imperviousness to anything male. She could never admit to that weakness, her pride would never allow it. Instead she bottled her fear up and try to contain as much of it as she can.

Anger was the only means she found that helped expel her fear outward, but one time release was never enough. The cycle of fear and anger was one she found herself trapped in, but once again she was too prideful to reach out for others to help her with it. The constant beating without defeat also fed her pride, which she thrived upon. She remained undefeated because of that she found solace for her fear in her strength.

She rather die, than admitting she could not defend herself anymore. By admitting defeat, she had to come to terms that she would just be another damsel in distress, who needed the help of a male to come bail her out everytime.

She was hoping with the plan from last night, she would gain back her dominance by, by finally defeating Ranma and gaining back her pride, by winning Ranma, and squash that fear forever, as it would be Ranma's ultimate admission of love. Now she just did not care anymore, her anger started to turn inward, into a putrid puss of self-loathing.

Anger at her inability to protect herself, anger at her own insecurities, anger at her own fear of intimacy, anger at her own undecided feelings toward Ranma, but now she laid face down defeated waiting for that final blow to put her out of her misery...

Her shoulder slumped and relaxed the tension between her shoulder blades, she felt a rush of air toward her neck. She flinched but the blow never came...

Her eyes fluttered open to see what had happened, what she saw petrified her more than anything else in her life. Ranma's face twisted in absolute disgust and disdain. Ranma's flattened hand prostrated straight, while shaking with power. She knew if he wanted to kill her he would have done it already, but why is he stopping. Everything no longer made any sense in her head.

The picture of Ranma in which she painted as a monster who had strung all those girls for his own perverted pleasure started to dissipate, forcefully, by the glare he was steadily leveling toward her. She did not know how to handle a serious and angry Ranma. The next words that came out of Ranma's mouth stunned her.

"Real martial artists have control" Ranma growled out gutturally with suppressed rage.

Akane was not sure whether that was directed at her or was it to serve as a reminder to himself. She watched with her mouth half gaped as the red-headed martial artist stood up and walked into the house, without making eye contact with anybody.

-MR-

Nabiki was the first to break the utter silence that followed the double beat downs at the hand of the heir of Anything Goes with a long two tone high low whistle. She surveyed the damage to the Tendo yard, Ranma definitely did a fine thorough job of destroying the current property.

Nabiki was fortunately enough to corner Kasumi after her morning coffee, for her to be updated on last night's events. She personally had a feeling something big was going down, for once she did not care for it anymore.

Nabiki's view on Ranma had changed drastically over the years he had stayed at the Tendo Dojo. When her father told them about the engagement, she was hopeful. Hopeful that she could find someone who would not be prejudice against her because of her reputation. However, when the curse was shown, she was scared and it was one of the few knee-jerk decision she had ever made in her life.

That decision was also one of the few mistakes she had made in her life as well. The feeling of hope turned into trepidation of the unknown. She reacted and shoved the responsibility of the engagement onto her younger sister. As she observed Ranma's life from the sidelines, seeing Ranma's endurance of character and his strong sense of character. Nabiki could not feel but him earning her respect a little by little everyday. She even entertained the idea of engaging to him, but his lack of ambition in anything but martial arts was in fact the breaking point of that possibility. Under different circumstances, it could be something. However, that was not the case.

Although Nabiki would never admit to it, she was able to repair her broken moral standards, by simply watching and seeing Ranma's decision on a daily basis. There were times when Ranma slipped, but in the end he always found a solution that would not tarnish his honour.

Her feeling toward Akane was mixed, there was a part in her that cheered Ranma had taken the Princess of Furinken High down a peg or two. There was another side of her that was also furious at Ranma for attacking her family. The former won out, as she saw the merit of providing some form of discipline for Akane as opposed to letting her behaviour to fester longer.

There were few things that happened in Nerima without her knowing at all. Even though she may not know all of the details, she was perceptive enough to have a general idea of what was happening, and from then on she can exploit the details out of people. Her greatest asset was not her reputation, but her understanding of the human psyche and her ability to put two and two together.

In the past month, she saw how all of the fiances including Kodachi as well as the rivals had a sudden change in behaviour. Instead of charging head on into Ranma like they usually did, they had avoided him like the plague. It was this type of hints that she picked up, which helped her interrogate and squeeze information out of people. She could pin down almost anybody through their body language in a matter of minutes. The others in Nerima were not even given her a challenge anymore. Although it was harder to read Cologne at times, but given her culture in which reading someone's action was taboo. The Amazon Elder did not have her defense up, habitually.

Her understanding of the human psyche also extended to one aspect of humanity that most could not grasp. Humans were unpredictable, especially those teetered on the brink of a psychotic breakdown. She observed the hint for the small crack from Ranma's posture during the failed wedding. It was then she made the decision to stop all operations she had on Ranma, because to be honest she liked the jock. If anybody broached her on such a sentiment, the mercenary would deny it vehemently.

Ranma had received one week after the wedding, in which nobody dared approaching him. During that peaceful week, the fracture began to heal. However it just seemed that the Kami would not give the pig-tailed martial artist a break. After the week, it heralded another fiance. Which set off another chain of events which reopened the wound and have been growing since.

Now it was almost half a year after the failed wedding, the cycle continued up until a month ago. She knew that something was up, but she for once was not in the planning stages for the event, nor was she the catalyst. Nabiki had a feeling that this would be the event that would be the straw that broke the horse's back, so to speak. She watched him struggle to keep his despair and sadness in, by putting up his usual carefree front. Now as he walked out the dojo, she saw the light in his eyes, the spark that made Ranma the bundle of energy, flickering and dying out slowly.

Nabiki wanted to help Ranma, but she did not know where to start. There were too many unknown factors and too many players for the result to be what she wanted. Most importantly, she did not know whether any plan would not blow up and would just aggravate Ranma even more. The futility of everything around the Aquatransexual was overwhelming, sometimes.

-MR-

Ranma looked up at the sky, it was funny how temperamental the weather can be. Not a few hours ago, it had been a torrential downpour from the heavens but now the afternoon sun was playing hide and seek in the clouds.

The heavy downpour and the feeling of holding Kasumi's soft supple body to him was still fresh in his head. Until last night, Ranma had no clue that under such conservative dress of hers was a body that would outmatch his current form. The rain from last night caused Kasumi's dress stick to her body like a second skin. Ranma could not help it but feel attracted to the elder Tendo when he had held her in his arms at the time. He felt something within him stir, even though he was a she at the time. Her breath became ragged, not from the exertion...

Ranma shook her red mane back forth trying to shake the image and feeling from her head. Now was not the time to feel aroused by such events, she just wanted to clear her head and want to find a way to solve her fiance problem. She wished that things were as simple as the fiances wanted it to be. He could just pick a fiance and everything else would be fine. The problem was he could not, because if he chose one he would tarnish...

Ranma was unable to complete this line of thought as a myopic Amazon jumped out of nowhere with a scream of

"Shampoo, Airen!"

Ranma felt a pair of male arms wrapped under his breast, while listening to the Amazon male babbling something incoherently in Chinese. The feeling of anger and disgust he tried to calm down came back a thousand fold. The pig-tailed martial artists froze up, and tried to tap into the soul of ice technique. However, the feeling for retribution and years of suppressed anger refused to be ignored any longer.

"Let me go" Ranma rumbled with suppressed rage.

Feeling Mousse's refusal to his command from the tightening of his arms around his stomach, and to Ranma's chagrin she felt a hand that was not hers squeezed her breast quite painfully. Ranma reacted. Swinging her legs back, the aquatransexual tucked her feet within the crooks of the Amazon's knees and pushed her feet into the back of his knees, forcing Mousse to bend his knees forward. She heard Mousse's yelp as he unexpectedly found himself kneeling on the ground. A feral grin broke on Ranma's face as she heard the cracking sound of the knee cap. The forced movement caused Mousse to loosen up his hold onto her, and she used this momentum to flip backward onto Mousse's back and landed on her feet facing toward Mousse.

Given that this movement made Mousse to be set up in a position with his ass sticking in the air toward her. Ranma took the opportunity to punt the blind martial artist toward the wall that he was facing. Mousse was apparently more resilient than Ranma had given him credit for, as he wobbly got back up on to his feet, but his fight against unconsciousness was for nought as Ranma took a running start and jumped with both of his feet aiming right at Mousse's chest, which pushed Mousse back into another part of the wall, his head made a thickening sound against the concrete wall and was promptly knocked out.

Looking up at the sky, seeing that it was close to nightfall, he hopped up onto of a building, and headed back toward the Tendo Dojo.

-MR-

Mousse for once in his short life was extremely jubilant as he meandered through Nerima, because he watched first hand that Ranma was no good for his Shampoo, and had rejected her outright, nevermind the fact that he had rejected the rest of the fiances as well. He was just happy that Ranma had rejected Shampoo. He hoped that through this outright rejection, Shampoo could finally accept the fact that Ranma was just not interested in her at all.

After the missive that was just recieved recently from the Council, Cologne have been more subdued than usual. Much unlike popular belief about the two, Mousse actually liked the ancient mummy. If it was not for her, he would not be able to practice martial arts at all in the village. Add on to the action she did not do when she had discovered him in Japan, it was safe to say that she valued Mousse more as an individual than anyone else in the tribe. He knew that Cologne was one of the more progressive Elders on the Council, and the most progressive Amazon Elder to date as well. Progressive did not mean that Cologne was absolutely naive toward the old ways, nor had she ever openly went against the decision or "recommendation" of the Council.

Mousse knew his place within the tribe, and tried not to go past the boundary which he was allowed. Mousse's pursuit for Shampoo was actually given consent by Cologne. Although on the surface, it was something that would be frowned upon by other Elders. His own grandmother was against the idea, because she did not want to jeopardized her position at all, as she was relatively new on the Amazon Council. Cologne saw the merit of his pursuit from the beginning, however his total color-blindness and his near eyesight give him a distinct disadvantage when it comes to martial arts.

Being born male, in a female dominant society had not been easy for Mousse. The treatment of males in the village as inferior being had actual real logical reason behind it. The reason was quite simple: almost all the males in the village suffered some form of color-blindness, because of a defective gene within the Amazons. How this gene got deformed was anybody's guess. As color-blindness is predominantly within male, females were unaffected by such limitations. Due to this defect, the Amazonian culture just made so much more sense for the female to be dominant while the males were subservient. It was also why Amazons preferred a match with outsider males, since they most likely did not have this defect, as opposed to the village males. Mousse could not really blame the culture of which 98% of the male population suffer this impairment, and he was no different.

All Cologne cared about was the total devotion Mousse had shown for her great granddaughter. Mousse also was among the most honest males in the village. Unlike other males in the village, Mousse refused to participate in the pastimes of the village males, gossip. This alone earned him some respect from the ancient elder. He was among the few in the village: a male that actually cared about his masculinity. Mousse honed his ears and nose to gather more information than his eyes. The only time, Mousse had ever been truly blind was when it came to Shampoo. He just did not know how to act around her. He felt so inadequate and insignificant when she's around. Mousse knew he could easily beat Shampoo if he gone all out, but he wanted her feeling to be genuine and not forced.

When he heard the news that Shampoo had given out the Kiss of Marriage, Mousse wanted to test out the devotion of her new suitor. He loved Shampoo and he was ready to give up on Shampoo entirely, if Ranma had shown her the type of devotion she deserved. He left the village without the consent of an elder. He was caught at customs and was sent back immediately to the village. His punishment was being cursed to turn into a duck. After a few weeks, he went to the council and petitioned to leave the village, as he turned 17, which by Amazon standard an adult. He petitioned on the reason he wanted to see the world and he had wonderlust. The Council saw no reason to keep him in the village and readily agreed for him to leave. He joined a travelling circus and the rest of his actions were history.

When he arrived in Japan, he stayed with the circus to finish off his contract, but also during this time he stayed out of sight and observed Shampoo and Ranma's actions. He was incensed by the fact that Saotome was actively running away from Shampoo, and most of her affection were quite one-sided. Ranma never really given any overt rejection, but the stiffening whenever Shampoo was near, and his active avoidance of the purple-haired girl angered him to no end. He came to the conclusion that Ranma was a womanizing bastard that liked the attention of females as he kept so many around him.

Oh how naive he was due to his young age and inexperience with interactions outside the village. The possibility that Ranma was forced into his situation, had never really crossed his mind. His reaction was in retrospect disgraceful and stupid. He had endangered someone else for the sake of interrogating Shampoo's suitor, having just being punished by the Council had put him on edge, and add on to the weeks of repressed anger from watching Ranma ignoring Shampoo did nothing to relieve his stress. The end result plan was absolutely idiotic. He was just glad nothing permanent came as a result of it or he would not have been able to live with the subsequent guilt.

His action afterwards were according to Amazon law, which was if he could defeat Shampoo's suitor, then It would mean that Shampoo would be released from the Kiss of Marriage, but tried as he had he could not beat the pig-tailed martial artist. As days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, Mousse started to question the validity of the Kiss of Marriage. He was the first to brought up, this concern to Cologne, Cologne who was in the thick of trying to capture the wayward husband. Rejected the notion outright at first, but as each attempt was thwarted she began to take the accusation more seriously, as she knew the real reason behind why Shampoo was initially cursed. The Council rarely publicized their opinions on rulings, as a result the reason for their actions throughout the village was entirely passed through the rumour mill. The grapevine may be true once in a while, but rarely were they ever true. The scenario which the Amazonian rumour mill accepted was that Shampoo had failed to bring back the head of the red-headed martial artist, not Shampoo's disobedience of the tribe's decision. Knowing her great granddaughter, Cologne had told him she would investigate this issue some more.

Which led to his current predicament, Mousse was wondering around Nerima. Since it was a Monday and it was a little bit before noon, the lunch rush was not for another hour or so. Cologne made him leave the Nekohanten to enjoy part of today, especially after the injuries he had sustained from last night. It would do his body some good to stretch out a bit. As he turned around a corner he saw the back of "Shampoo"'s back toward him. He rushed forward hugging her from behind.

He unknowing started to babble a whole lot of nonsense in Chinese about Ranma was no longer a problem, they could finally be together, how her honour would not be stained at all if she would give up on Ranma and head home with him. The reaction he recieved was standard "Shampoo" whenever he initiated any form of contact: froze in place. He just continued to babble more incoherently about his undying love for her and their union have already been blessed by his grandmother. He felt "Shampoo" shake, not from her body, but as a tremble from her vocal chord.

That did not sound like Shampoo...that sounded like Ranma. He unconsciously grabbed on to the female's tits and felt its size, it was definitely not Shampoo's size. Shampoo's was a bit fuller than this females. When his thought finally caught up with his action, the next thought that went through his head was:

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!"

He felt himself falling down on to his knees followed by a sharp pain on his knee cap accompanied with the distinct crack from bone fracture. The next thing he knew he was flying head first toward a wall.

Wanting to express his remorse, he braced himself for impact. His determination won out, as he wobbled back on to his feet. Just when he was about to voice his apology, the wind got knocked out of him as he found himself air born again. Soon after, he drifted into the land of unconsciousness

-MR-

Kodachi was laying on a boat floating down the Nile, she was dressed in very thin satin and was wearing nothing underneath. Her faithful servant and bodyguard was standing next to her wearing nothing but a loin cloth. She watched idly as her pet, Midorigame thrashed around in the shallow end of the water. Absentmindedly she reached over and started massaging...

{/I will spare you the mental sexual construct of a crazed lunatic, although I do have it written}

"Ranma" the final soft sigh escaped from her open lips as her fantasy came to an end.

Kodachi had left the Tendo compound as soon as Ranma left, seeing that most of her wounds were minor thank to some miracle. She had worst injuries when practicing gymnastics. It wasn't long before she drifted off to a soft slumber, and awoken up with her hand inside herself.

She groggily got out of her plush bed and wondered into the shower to clean the musk scent from herself as much as possible. She had discovered after years of therapy and chemical balancing drugs, the only means by which her mind had ever cleared up and allowed her to function as a member of society was after a strong sexual release. Having never been touched by a man before, she never really understood true carnal joy. In her moments of clarity, She had hoped her moments of clarity would be sustainable, after having a real session in the sack with someone she cared about as opposed to fleeting moments of lucidness like it had been ever since she started masturbating regularly. She did not have the luxury of constant masturbation during class and while she practiced gymnastic martial arts.

The only other times that she was able to break out of the fog of lunacy that was her birthright was during times of extreme concentrations. Once past her craziness, her mind was actually extremely sharp. It was selfish of her but she wanted to remain sane as much as possible and she wasn't above using some underhanded tactics to get the man she wanted, and in this case: Ranma.

Kodachi quickly donned her skin-tight leotard, and bounded out of the Kuno Mansion looking for Ranma. He was everything she wanted in a man, naive, strong, kind, steadfast, and quite smart when properly motivated. Naivity was a quality most people would not found attractive, but to Kodachi it meant she had both the opportunity to shape his sexual preferences and leaning. She did not mind the extra work, if it meant that he could cause her to be in comatose from pleasure. She was getting ahead of herself, now all she wanted to do was to locate her Ranma-sama.


End file.
